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Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Today I got a letter in the mail. I hadn't quite seen it coming because I was assuming we'd get informed by email. Nonetheless it was something I had been eagerly awaiting.. and fearing.
I don't remember if I've mentioned it here before or not.. but in any case I applied for this one approximately 1,5 year long course at Lappia ammattiopisto and more exactly the VAT studies – Valokuvaajan Ammattitutkinto. Basically this kind of photography profession studies that are meant for people who already have previous schooling, experience and probably even a photography related working life. Sorry I suck at explaining this kind of stuff in English, I don't have the vocabulary. ;_; But it was mentioned in the search information that even hobbyists could get in if you were good enough.
So yeah, I had decided to try my luck and apply for this thing, because it's one of the few study options here that I have a genuine interest in and would want to work with in the future. I had to do some advance photo tasks and send them in for judging. All my relatives who knew about it were encouraging me to try getting in and being hopeful about me making it noo, no pressure at all.. Honestly I had a scratching in my butt that it's too big of a leap and that I wouldn't make it because I have litte to no previous photography studies under my belt – but I kept hoping for the best. To be the lucky one. I'm never lucky.

So yeah, today the final decision letter dropped in my mailbox. I was shit nervous when I had to open it.. had problems focusing on reading, I swear!

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH IS NEAR...

...

...

Guess what?

...

I didn't get in, of course.

Just as I had thought. ;_; Not good enough! 8C

It still feels a bit bad because I really wanted to get in; maybe I could have gotten somewhere with the knowledge I would have gained, maybe even could have got work and a sure profession. I could have gotten somewhere in life...
I feel a bit like I'm now letting my mom and especially my photography aunt down. I actually haven't even told mom yet.. I'm a bit scared to tell. :S They were so excited when I actually showed interest in something after all these depression and school fuck-ups...
Oh well, I kind of saw it coming so it doesn't feel like I just got a frying pan in my face either. I'm just not the lucky type... but at least I tried. Oh well, time to sink back into reality and my crappy hole of a situation – at least now I have less stress and pressure to perform well; more time to work out other things before I get a grip of what I want to do with my future. I'm so lost right now – maybe it's even for the better that I didn't get chosen; I'm not sure I would have had the focus and energy to go through it at this point in life.. and I have social issues and anxiety going on currently anyway..
Gah. I don't know. OTL *shot*

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Today on the morning, when I woke up and looked out of the mirror, I saw this:

It's snowing. MOTHERFUCKING SNOWING. I mean, it's 24th of September, it's snowing like mad and weather is still veeery slightly above 0 °C. Sure that I live high up in the north.. but still. >_< I guess it's time to put on the fur hat... *grumble*

Oh well, a few days ago I also marathoned Black Bullet, a pretty new anime. The decision to watch it was really sudden and random –Hasakitsuki saw a cosplay wig for one of the main characters and fell in love with it and just had to know what series it was from.
The anime is 13 episodes long and finished airing on July this year.
So, what is it about?

Black Bullet is set in a near future Japan where viral parasite monsters called Gastrea have almost defeated mankind. The remaining human cities are protected by huge Monolith pillars, infused with Varanium, that keep Gastrea from entering.
Our main hero Rentarou Satomi is a gun-wielding boy living near Tokyo who is part of the Civil Security organization – an organization specialized in fighting against the Gastrea. Rentarou's companion is Enju Aihara, a 10-year-old girl who can fight Gastrea effectively, because she's not fully human herself. This pair takes on dangerous tasks together to defend humanity. Yeah, in a way it's similar to Attack on Titan..
Personally I enjoyed it surprisingly much. What bothers me though is that the ending felt a bit rushed and there was a friggin' weird cliffhanger. This so needs a second season to be explained. Oh, it needs a second season anyway because so many questions were left unanswered! *spoilers, highlight to read*Why exactly did Rentarou choose to do those bodily changes to himself? What will happen with Enju's high corrosion rate? Why did Kisara turn all dark and weird in the end?*spoilers end* So yeah, I'm expecting a second season or else I will not be amused. :C Need to know!Otherwise I must mention that after Tracon (13-14 September) I caught a bad case of the con flu. Long time no see, huh? It has been at least five days now. Getting really tired of this shit, I just want to be healthy again. ;_; This
flu or whatever just doesn't want to leave me in peace, I swear. I have a more
or less constant cough (which gives me throat pains if I cough violently a lot), occasionally
stuffy/runny nose, my ears feel blocked and my voice is almost
completely gone and has been for a few days now. The weird thing is that
I don't have fever, except for the first day when it went to 40 °C
close to midnight. After that I haven't had anything above 38 °C. Such a
weird flu. My taste is normal as well. One of the first days I
seemingly hurt my throat from all the coughing because it was really
painful to swallow anything and I was coughing up blood-streaked phlegm.
Outch.
But yeah, the school nurse came home to me and checked my ears and breathing. Seems to be fine but she thought she might have heard something off when I breathed in deeply the first time though. But seemingly the other times were fine so she's not sure if it was just a derp or what. Oh well, I'll head for the health care center if it gets worse. So far it's pretty okay, if you ignore the amount of phlegm I have to cough up every minute as well as the cough itself. Bleh.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

I've returned home from Tracon (13-14 September 2014), an anime convention in Tampere, Finland. I seemingly caught the con flu there because yesterday after noon I started feeling sick and close to midnight my fever reached 40 °C, ouch. D: It was horrible. Luckily today on the morning when I woke up I felt better; for the moment I don't think I have fever but my throat feels like sandpaper and I feel sick. :<Oh well, at Tracon I met Sipsinekku and paid her back for the Hakuouki figure she bought to me from her trip to Japan earlier this year. Thanks! <3 After I returned home from Tracon I also paid Jäätynyt Enkeli back and obtained the figure he had bought for me at Närcon this year – another anime convention but this time in Linköping, Sweden. Thanks bro!

So here follows the picture spam!

Let's start with the Hakuouki Collection Figure by Media Factory!(aka the one Jäätynyt Enkeli gave me)

Box front

Box side

Box other side

This one he bought at the con and it was pre-opened (in the bottom) so you could pick which character figure you wanted. The figure was still in all the original plastic protections and in parts, just the box was opened. I choose rasetsu version Souji Okita because he is my favorite character. <3 Also the rasetsu figures are secret/hidden figures – there is a Hajime Saitou rasetsu version too that is the second secret one of the two.
Okita was packed in this kind of plastic bag with separate "pockets" for all the different parts. Check the following figure's photos to get an idea of what it looked like because it was basically the same; I forgot to take photos of Okita's unpacking. But yeah, these figures come in 4 separate parts – head, body, standing platform and that little holder thingy that keeps the figure attached to the platform. Very easy to assemble.

Front view (focus on body)

Seen slightly from above

Side view

Head view

Back view

Platform bottom

This figure is really cute and approximately 5 cm tall. When you look at him closely from some certain angles you can see that his feet are very slightly in the air when on the platform. xD
His eyes are really pretty and he's doing this Okita-ish expression and it's just so aghjfdshgjad. <3 I did notice though that my figure has a few tiny spots on his hair where it looks like paint might have been rubbed off or something; then again it's really minor so it doesn't bother me one way of another – painting job is rarely perfectly flawless anyway, so I expect there to be a few misses. You can see it especially well on the second and fourth pic if interested, counting from the top.
This one cost me about 13 €.

Now follows the Hakuouki One Coin Grande figure by Kotobukiya!(aka the one Sipsinekku gave me)

Box front

Box view, mostly back

Box side

Other box side

Box top

Box front, seen from above

Box bottom

Box opened from the top, Saitou-san is looking at me! :D

And Okita-san on the second box flap! <3

So.. what's in there?! *W*

These are sold as blind boxes so you don't know which one you will get when you buy them from stores, unless whoever sells them has them pre-opened. I've seen that at some online stores you can buy the whole box set, which of course means you'd get one of each character figure...

So, who was hiding in there?

*unravels bubble wrap*

...

......

HARADAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!

That little card with a picture on seems to be some sort of small "hey you got Harada!" collection card that also has a puzzle piece printed on the back. I assume if you collect all different characters –and get their respective cards– and then put the back piece puzzle together you'd see some nice artwork of something!

Figure packing

So as you figured out by now Harada came wrapped around in bubble wrap that was taped in place and when you unravel it you find the things above in your hands. Plastic with separate pockets so that the figure pieces won't be in direct touch with each other and possibly do damage.
This figure came in three parts – complete character, platform and that magnetic rod support thingy. Yeah, magnetic. I'll get back to that later...

Front view

Side-ish front view

Seen from above

Side view

Back view

Harada is looking cool and big-brotherly as always! :D He is not one of my main favorites in Hakuouki but I pretty much like all the characters (even Sannan and Kondou!) in the series so I'm fine with any! I was secretly hoping for Shinpachi though, because –as far as I've seen– it's fairly rare to see merchanise of him. I would have squeed manlily for Okita lol. Yeah I just made that word up, "manlily". :'D

But hey, back to Harada! So he seems to be well-painted and I like his hair color surprisingly much – it's this kind of darkish brown with a red tint to it and it's not too red. He is approximately 5 cm tall. The tiny ponytail in his back is super cute! His cheeks seem to have a slight blush which is adorable as well. >w< Otherwise he looks confident and slightly flirty, just like Harada is supposed to look. Also I want to mention that even though he came in one piece his head can be taken off. headless!Harada aaaarghrhg run! o_o You can also turn his head 360 degrees around his body, which looks a bit freaky. xD He's secretly an owl...
This one cost me 5 €.

Oh, remember that magnet thing? Well, the figure seemingly has a magnet in his head which will attach itself to the magnet rod on the platform. You can't really see it on the back view photo but there's a small, slightly wider vertical spot in the back of his head which the rod fits into. If you don't put the rod on this specific spot it will just move around and not get a proper "grip" of the figure and thus he won't stand without falling.
But yeah, because I'm a derp I had to try how strong the magnet inside Harada's head really is and so... I went to attach him on my freeze box...

BADUMTSSSH - IT HOLDS!

I was surprised that he actually didn't fall off, considering that his head is, well, round. xD Then again I angled him so that the "spot for the rod" was against the freezer because it's very slightly flatter than the rest of his head.

☆ LensVillage ☆

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About Me

The name is Kai, I'm a young man underneath the northern lights in Sweden & Finland! My heart beats for cosplay, Japanese popular culture, video games, alternative fashion, poetry, blogging, photography etc. I'm that one metalhead guy who (not so) secretly also likes unicorns and cute things. I hope you enjoy your time reading and you're much welcome to follow my blog if you like it! ♥ ^_^